The Zips (13-0-1, 5-0-0 Mid-American Conference), ranked second in the nation in team offense entering the week took a 1-0 advantage on a controversial penalty kick by Michael Nanchoff and scored again on a Ben Speas goal.

Broncos freshman Oliver Mayer put one on the board for WMU (7-6-2, 2-1-0) — the first
against Akron by a MAC opponent — at 69:34, off an
assist from sophomore Shane Lyons.

“I cannot tell you how proud I am of our players tonight,” WMU head coach Stu Riddle in a news release. “To come in this environment and run the nation’s number one team all the way to the wire is just fantastic. We had a game plan and implemented it to a ‘T’, it’s a real shame we had a questionable on-field decision that may have cost us the match.”

WMU keeper Sean Lewis made four saves, and Akron outshot the Broncos, 13-3.